Hispanics, whites, late deciders lift Clinton to victory in Texas

Published 6:00 pm, Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Sen. Hillary Clinton reassembled her old coalition of Hispanics, white women and the poor just in time to win Tuesday's Texas Democratic primary and keep her presidential campaign alive.

Clinton also won big among voters who decided in the last three days, indicating that her commercials questioning Sen. Barack Obama's ability to be commander in chief may have worked, judging from results of an exit poll for The Associated Press and television networks.

Sen. John McCain cruised to victory in the less suspenseful Republican primary even though nearly half of GOP voters said the most important characteristic was a candidate who shared their values _ and they preferred former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on that score. But McCain, like Clinton, overwhelmingly won voters who said experience mattered.

Voters in both primaries picked the economy as the top issue.

Clinton barely topped 50 percent in beating Obama, but she carried 66 percent of the Hispanic vote, which made up 32 percent of Democratic primary voters.

The former first lady also won whites, 55-44 _ tying among white men but winning white women 59-40.

Clinton won 65-32 among voters 65 or older, offsetting Obama's strength with voters under 30, and she won easily among those from families earning less than $30,000 a year.

Some polls last week showed a dead heat, but Clinton may have won the race over the weekend, when she bombarded Texas airwaves with a somber television spot suggesting that only she was qualified to deal with a national security crisis at 3 a.m.

Although the exit poll didn't specifically ask about the ad, there were signs that Clinton's tough tactics in the final days paid off.

One-fifth of Democratic primary voters decided in the last three days, and Clinton carried them 60-39. By a 55-39 margin, they viewed Clinton as better qualified to be commander in chief. Voters who said they focused on the candidates' experience favored Clinton by a staggering 91-7 margin.

They also said the New York senator offered clear and detailed plans to solve the country's problems. Obama was seen as more inspirational.

Obama scored a lopsided 84-16 margin with black voters, but they accounted for only 19 percent of Democratic primary voters compared to 32 percent for Hispanics.

The gender gap seen in previous primaries surfaced again. Men favored Obama 51-47, but women _ who made up 57 percent of the Democratic primary voters _ went 54-45 for Clinton. They praised her grit.

"She's had to fight the odds to succeed and survive," said Mary Valenzuela, a retired court clerk in San Antonio who voted for Clinton.

Democratic primary voters who named the economy or the war in Iraq as the top issue split their votes, but the 22 percent that said health care was more important voted 58-39 for Clinton.

Four in 10 said the most important characteristic for candidates was the ability to create change, and Obama carried 71 percent of them.

But the next biggest group, more than one in four, focused on experience, and 91 percent supported Clinton.

Clinton appeared to win narrowly among voters who called themselves liberal or very liberal, a group that had been in Obama's camp.

The primary was open to anyone. Sixty-six percent said they were Democrats _ they favored Clinton _ while 25 percent called themselves independents, and 9 percent said they were Republicans.

Only about half of each Democratic candidate's supporters said they would be satisfied if the other won the nomination.

"If Hillary wins, I'll vote for the Republican," said Jodie Howard, a suburban Dallas woman who recently lost her job as a technology trainer for a homebuilder. "I don't think Hillary has any integrity at all."

Some supporters of Clinton were equally dubious of the first-term senator from Illinois.

"There's a lot we don't know about him," Clinton voter Dorothy Martin, who also lives near Dallas, said of Obama. "He's only 46. He hasn't earned this."

Survey results were from interviews of 2,048 Democratic primary voters and 1,488 Republican primary voters conducted by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International in 40 polling places across Texas on Tuesday. Margin of sampling error plus or minus 3 percentage points in the Democratic primary and 4 percentage points in the GOP election. The samples include 434 Democratic voters and 267 Republican voters who voted early or absentee and were surveyed in the past week by telephone.